'Bumbling' in Iraq

Published: December 30, 2003

To the Editor:

We will never know how Michael Oakeshott, the philosopher who died in 1990, would have responded to David Brooks's ''discussion'' (column, Dec. 27). How convenient for Mr. Brooks. And how unlikely that most people of good conscience would place our invasion of Iraq into the category of ''adventuring out into the world, by playfully confronting the surprises and unpredictability of it all.''

Mr. Brooks overlooks the difference between citizens' choosing to build a free society and a people's having a government forced upon them through use of ''shock and awe.''